The office Steam Deck and I have had some good times. For one, playing 1000xResist for the second time on this handheld gaming powerhouse proved a far smoother experience than my first go around on the Nintendo Switch. For another, the Steam Deck screen really lets me appreciate just how tired The Thaumaturge protagonist Wiktor Szulski looks at the start of the game. If only chasing my own eternal sleepiness away was as easy as befriending a fiend from the other side.
Alas, I've kept the office Steam Deck zipped up in its case for longer than I'd like to admit. Why? It's just logistics—my poor little raptor claws get tired handling the heft of Valve's handheld through long gaming sessions. So, what snapped me awake—sharp talons and all—was this deal on the lighter weight Asus ROG Ally, now only $450 from Best Buy.
To be clear, we're talking about the original Asus ROG Ally released in 2023, and not the more refined Asus ROG Ally X that came out last summer. The Ally is a little older, sure, but still has a lot to offer; to start off on the best foot possible, our Dave wrote in his Asus ROG Ally review that "Asus has made a genuinely next-gen Steam Deck in the ROG Ally." Considering the Steam Deck 2 is likely still a ways off, and the fact Asus' surprisingly lightweight handheld gaming PC boasts the same AMD Z1 Extreme APU as the Ally X, that statement isn't just hyperbole even today.
With 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a speedy PCIe 4.0 SSD to boot, games run beautifully. However, the real head turner on this handheld is the 7-inch screen. Now, I know what you're thinking—and I'd kindly ask you to get your mind out of the gutter—but this handheld's IPS-level screen with FHD 1080p resolution is still nothing to sneeze at (or make double entendres about).
That said, there are still drawbacks to picking up this older model though—even if it is so deeply and temptingly discounted. For a start, 512 GB of onboard storage is not much to play with (unless you're a real fiend for indie games). But mercifully, even the original Asus ROG Ally features expandable storage, allowing you to pop in a microSD card for a little more breathing room.
Besides that, there's not loads in it between the two Asus handhelds; the fresher and funkier X has twice as much RAM, a longer lasting battery, and a few more options when it comes to storage space. For the full tech spec comparison, check out our Asus ROG Ally X review.
Still, when it comes to handheld gaming PCs with a much less intimidating form factor, it's hard to put the Asus ROG Ally down—which is to say, I should probably go charge it before too long. Of all the places for my handheld to run out of juice, I'd rather it wasn't mid-game of truth or dare in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage...
